Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a commonly used nickname for the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, USA, originally referring to the concentration of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually becoming a metaphor for the entire concentration of high tech businesses. It encompasses the northern part of Santa Clara Valley and adjacent communities in the southern parts of the San Francisco Peninsula and East Bay. It reaches approximately from Menlo Park (on the Peninsula) and the Fremont/Newark area in the East Bay down through San Jose, centered roughly on Sunnyvale. In north Santa Clara County, an industrial "Big Dipper" can be seen from aerial photographs because the buildings and streets are laid out in a fashion that is easily distinguishable from the residential areas. (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.304051,-121.872734&spn=0.11,0.18&t=k—zoom out for a wider view.)

Notable companies

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Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley; among those, the following are in the Forbes 500:

Related Topics:
High technology - Forbes 500

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Adobe Systems | Advanced Micro Devices | Agilent Technologies | Altera | Apple Computer | Applied Materials | BEA Systems | Cadence Design Systems | Cisco Systems | eBay | Electronic Arts | Google | Hewlett-Packard | Intel | Intuit | Juniper Networks | Maxtor | National Semiconductor | Network Appliance | NVIDIA Corporation | Oracle Corporation | Siebel | Sun Microsystems | Symantec | Synopsys | Varian Medical Systems | Yahoo!

Related Topics:
Adobe Systems - Advanced Micro Devices - Agilent Technologies - Altera - Apple Computer - Applied Materials - BEA Systems - Cadence Design Systems - Cisco Systems - EBay - Electronic Arts - Google - Hewlett-Packard - Intel - Intuit - Juniper Networks - Maxtor - National Semiconductor - Network Appliance - NVIDIA Corporation - Oracle Corporation - Siebel - Sun Microsystems - Symantec - Synopsys - Varian Medical Systems - Yahoo!

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Additional notable companies headquartered in Silicon Valley include (some defunct or subsumed):

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Adaptec | Atmel | Cypress Semiconductor | Foundry Networks | McAfee | Knight-Ridder |Netscape (now AOL) | NeXT Computer Inc (now Apple) | Palm, Inc. | PalmSource, Inc. | PayPal (now Part of eBay) | Rambus | Silicon Graphics | TiVo | VA Software (Slashdot) | VeriSign| | Veritas Software (acquired by Symantec)

Related Topics:
Adaptec - Atmel - Cypress Semiconductor - Foundry Networks - McAfee - Knight-Ridder - Netscape - AOL - NeXT Computer Inc - Apple - Palm, Inc. - PalmSource, Inc. - PayPal - EBay - Rambus - Silicon Graphics - TiVo - VA Software - Slashdot - VeriSign - Veritas Software - Symantec

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Befitting its heritage, Silicon Valley is home to the high-tech superstore chain Fry's Electronics.

Related Topics:
Superstore - Fry's Electronics

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